


Turning The Page

by Chromophilic_Daydream



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Christmas Fluff, M/M, Post canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:14:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21955711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chromophilic_Daydream/pseuds/Chromophilic_Daydream
Summary: Ren didn’t know why he decided to make a Christmas cake of all things—he had a gift as well—but he had been bouncing with energy all day already, and it would be several hours until the newly accepted university student would be dropping by the cafe. It was making him anxious…and when he was anxious he cooked. Ren figured baking wasn’t that much different than cooking. There were a lot of first times happening today, and he was so excited he could hardly keep his wits about him as he skimmed the ingredients in Sojiro’s pantry.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 59
Collections: Shuake SS Gift Exchange 2019





	Turning The Page

**Author's Note:**

> My gift for [Corvus](https://twitter.com/impropercorvus) for this year's Shuake Secret Santa! This prompt was SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE. Merry Christmas everyone!!

“Why don’t you just  _ buy _ a cake? It’d be easier than…watching you do this.” Futaba wrinkled her nose as she scrutinized Ren from her chair at the counter of Leblanc. A bead of sweat dripped down his temple and he quickly wiped it away before turning to her. 

“Watching me what?” he asked, dusting his hands off on his apron.

“Uh…I think you’re baking right now, yeah? Either that or trying to make Sojiro freak out when he comes back and sees this place.” She pushed her glasses up. “He’s never going to want you to visit again, Ren.”

He scoffed and waved off her accusation before turning to survey his surroundings. Okay…maybe there was a fine layer of flour that coated the kitchen and hung in the air. He didn’t know that mixing together all the dry ingredients like that was going to end up with it everywhere.

“Listen, I’ve never baked before,” he protested.

“And I don’t see why you’re deciding to start now,” she teased.

“This really is a mess, Ren. Don’t expect us to help you clean it.” Morgana scowled, his ears pressed back against his head. “It’s like the dust from the attic migrated down here.”

“It’s not  _ that _ bad, leave me alone.” He rolled up his sleeves. “I want to make a Christmas cake, alright? I don’t need your help with this. The recipe can’t be that hard.”

“What are you going to do to make up for all that flour that ended up everywhere but the bowl, then? Guess?”

He shot her a look but couldn’t help but smile. He missed this. It had been a little less than a year since he had been back here, in this cramped little cafe. Everyone was so happy to hear he decided to come visit during winter break and had been occupying his usually lonely days with laughter and warmth. He missed them all terribly.

Especially his time here at Leblanc with Futaba. Morgana and Sojiro. And especially with Goro. The last year had been equal parts healing and difficult. After several long talks and several heated disagreements, they had at least settled their differences and rebuilt their relationship from the ground up—like a cake from scratch. They had both taken time to see each other, Ren saving up money to go see Goro in Tokyo on a weekend every month, and Goro doing the same. It didn’t take many of these outings for Ren to realize he had deeper feelings than just a sting of betrayal and empathy.

Ren hadn’t officially asked Goro out though…it was kind of difficult to bring up the idea after hours of talking and bantering about life and school and work and whatnot. Every time he decided to ask, his words stuck in his throat and his mouth would only allow him to change the subject. That was going to change though. That would all be different tonight. That was why he was working so hard to make a Christmas cake for when he finally got the see Goro tonight. It was the first time they had seen each other since Ren came back to visit.

He didn’t know why he decided to make a Christmas cake of all things—he had a gift as well—but he had been bouncing with energy all day already, and it would be several hours until the newly accepted university student would be dropping by the cafe. It was making him anxious…and when he was anxious he cooked. Ren figured baking wasn’t that much different than cooking. There were a lot of first times happening today, and he was so excited he could hardly keep his wits about him as he skimmed the ingredients in Sojiro’s pantry.

Regardless of the two continuing to tease him as he accidentally missed the bag of sugar he was scrapping the excess off into, he was doing his best.

“Okay enough, shoo.” Ren waved them away as he hunted down the broom to sweep up his mess. 

“Ah, whatever,” Futaba yawned and stood up, looking down to Morgana who sat idly by the recipe book Ren was using. “Let’s go, Mona. This hopeless love-sick fool has no use for us!”

“What if he forgets to add eggs or something, or preheat the oven,” the cat mused, flicking his tail. Ren bolted up straight, dropping the broom with a loud clatter that made his feline friend jump in surprise. 

“The oven! I forgot to preheat the oven!” He hustled over to it and turned the dial.

“Seriously? You really are hopeless! Come on Mona, I don’t want to be here when Sojiro comes in and lectures him about messing up the kitchen.”

He scowled and picked up the broom, but gave them a smile and wave when they left. He already missed them both, but he knew Futaba and Morgana had been discussing a Featherman marathon for some time. Ren let out a sigh and adjusted his glasses. He was pretty satisfied with his cleaning job. Just in time for the preheating timer to go off. He still had a long way to go though.

Confidently he rolled up his sleeves and went back to the recipe. He had already mixed two things, and now came the flavoring.

Nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, salt and ginger. He rummaged around the pantry again, grabbing the necessary spices and added the correct amounts into his flour/sugar mixture. Odd, he didn’t think Christmas cake was this dark of a color usually…But it was what the recipe called for, so he wasn’t going to question it. He wasn’t that big on sweets anyway and never had Christmas cake with anyone…so he supposed this was right.

Gaining confidence, he mixed everything together, and soon the dry mixture became thick and creamy. He added it to a cake pan, put it in the oven at long last, and did a few chores while he waited for the cake to finish baking. Ren’s gaze fell to his phone which had been quiet while he was prepping the batter. He frowned and wondered if he should shoot Goro a message to see if everything was okay.

Just as if his mind was being read, his screen lit up with Goro’s name flashing across it. His hand flew to the phone, and he couldn’t help smiling so widely the corners of his mouth began to ache.

[I’ll be there in an hour, is that alright?]

Hurriedly, he typed back:

[That’s great. Better not be late.]

He wondered how Goro would react to that little challenge. Would he pout every so slightly? Maybe huff and stand up a little bit straighter? His mind wandered with every little possibility, so much that he didn’t notice the timer going off until he began to smell a little burning.

“Oh, shit,” he murmured, putting his phone down in a hurry and knocking over his book in the process. Ren cursed under his breath and jumped into action, taking the cake out of the oven and quickly placing it on a cooling rack before picking his cookbook off the floor and turning back to the Christmas cake recipe. He was onto decorating and found the page. He needed white icing and strawberries…that seemed like an odd combination, but he depanned the cake and put it in the freezer too cool before going out to the store to get a few strawberries and sugar before the hour was up.

Hustling back, he whipped together the frosting and washed and cut the strawberries. 

His mind wandered back to where it was before as he took the cake out of the freezer and haphazardly started spreading frosting on it. Ren’s nerves were solidifying in his stomach, hard like a ball of lead. He began to imagine how Goro’s face would look when he opened Ren’s gift…or when he took a bite of cake. He tried hard to imagine what happiness for them would look like now if Goro accepted his feelings.

The clatter of the bells and scrape of the heavy wooden door knocked him right out of his dream world and right back to reality, where he had just finished putting some fresh strawberries on top of the fully frosted cake.

Warmth spread through him immediately when he saw him. 

The dark green of Goro’s sweater made his eyes look even brighter, even in the dim lights of Leblanc. His hair was as neat as ever, a bit longer than the last time they had seen each other. Ren couldn’t help a small smile that reached his lips when he saw him—he looked like he had been resting well and taking care of himself. 

Ren was very pleased by that.

“Hey.” He pushed up his glasses and put down the knife he was holding before leaning over the bar.

“Hey,” Goro responded, returning his slight smile and holding up his wrist to reveal a small tan faced watch. “You’ll see I’m right on time,” he mused before taking off his dark overcoat and hanging it on the coat rack. Ren’s eyes lingered on the small box that he was carrying. It had been carefully wrapped in a simple red paper. Excitement raged through him. He had a gift too, upstairs, but they could get to that later.

“As expected.” Ren grinned, barely able to contain his eagerness. “Thanks for making time tonight.”

“I told you, I tried getting off earlier, but between classes and work—”

“You’re really busy. I know. I was being serious though, no jokes.”

Their gazes met, and Ren watched the tense line of Goro’s shoulders relax a bit.

“Hmm, then I suppose I should thank you for also making time to see me.”

“Oh?” Ren raised an eyebrow. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you missed me.”

“Do you really know better?” 

“Hey…” 

He missed this so much. They both let out a soft laugh, and Goro took his normal seat where he always did at Leblanc. But this time, Ren knew he wouldn’t run away. And Ren wouldn’t either. He was going to do it. His attention darted once again to the present sitting on the counter beside Goro, but he tried not to focus on it too much. He had other things to do first.

“Did you eat yet?” 

“No, I’m sorry, I didn’t have a chance to. I just finished an essay this morning.”

Ren’s heart hammered against his ribcage. He hurried over here just to see him, huh? He didn’t have to ask, and Goro didn’t have to tell him. Ren understood well enough.

“Okay, let me whip you up some curry really fast. Coffee too?”

“I’d love that.”

Their conversation was light and casual. They caught each other up on how they had been since they last saw each other a month ago. Goro spoke of his classes, and Ren talked about how he was really over the swim team since he rejoined. They laughed and shared a warm meal that left Ren wondering where the last hour had gone since Goro got to the cafe.

“Oh!” His attention turned to the cake sitting behind them. “I made us something.”

“Besides dinner?” Goro asked, folding his hands under his chin. 

“Dessert.”

He watched Goro’s eyebrows raise in surprise and couldn’t help but feel some smug satisfaction as he watched him recover his cool exterior as usual.

Ren took off his apron and grabbed the frosted cake from behind the counter and presented it.

“It’s Christmas so…I decided to bake a cake.”

“Oh, it looks delicious. Maybe a bit rustic.” A slight smirk graced Goro’s lips, and Ren felt like he just got made fun of.

“Oh shut up. I’ve never baked before.”

“That’s evident.”

“Rich coming from someone who can hardly cook an egg.”

“I can cook an egg,  _ Ren _ .” Goro’s honey brown eyes narrowed—challenging.

He couldn’t help but grin. “Boiling an egg until the water runs out doesn’t count as cooking,  _ Goro.” _

The former detective crossed his arms over his chest in defiance but let the conversation drop off. A point for Ren. Goro could be so cute sometimes…he wondered if the other knew that. Ren was right about the slight pout of his bottom lip and the rosy color that stained his cheeks. He wanted so badly to reach out and brush back a few loose strands of hair that obscured his view of those warm brown eyes.

Suddenly those eyes were on him once again, wide for a moment before narrowing. “Do I have something on my face?”

Heat burned away at the tips of Ren’s ears, and he coughed to make up some time to recover. He had been staring, huh? Futaba was right; he was hopeless. 

“No, no I just—cake.” He rummaged around in the kitchen for a plate, happy for the distraction. Ren quickly cut a slice and scooted it, and a fork, over to Goro, who seemed not as flustered as he was…dammit, that wasn’t fair.

“Ah…of course. Thank you.” 

Ren took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He finally turned around and saw the detective picking up the plate to observe the cake closer.

“What? Something wrong?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Just very dark for a Christmas cake,” Goro hummed, seemingly over the incident that still had Ren a bit frazzled. Okay, that was really unfair.

“You think?” he asked, deciding not to focus on the rapid beating of his heart and his hands feeling a bit sweaty. “I followed the recipe. Flour, eggs, vanilla, milk…”

He watched in anticipation as the other took a fork full of fluffy cake with a bit of strawberry.

“Cinnamon, ginger, clove and frosting and strawberries—uh. Goro?”

The fork lingered in Goro’s gloved hand as he chewed slowly. A bit too slowly.

Ren could swear his eyes were watering a little, and there was a forceful swallow.

Was it burnt?

“Did you…say ginger? And cloves?”

“Uh yeah, that’s what the recipe said. Why?” Ren took a forkful of the cake on Goro’s plate and put it in his mouth.

The ginger clashed with the sweetness of the whipped cream frosting and the tartness of the strawberry. It didn’t mix well in his mouth, and suddenly Ren was hit with the realization of why Goro’s eyes were watering. It was pretty…spicy.

And considering how mild Goro’s taste palette was…

“Wait, it shouldn’t be like that, right? I don’t understand what happened; I followed the instructions.” Ren flipped open the book and skimmed the recipe for the Christmas cake that was decorated with strawberries. 

He didn’t see anything about ginger or cloves…or cinnamon. What? He turned a page or two forward and his heart sank into his stomach.

Ren was greeted by the recipe for Ginger cake, which looked an awful lot like what was on Goro’s plate. Oh no, had the page turned?

Come to think of it, Morgana had been sitting right by it, flicking his tail. Dammit, the pages must have flipped when he and Futaba left. And then, when the timer was going off, Ren did knock the book down. It was a Ginger cake masquerading around as a Christmas cake. 

He snapped the book shut.

“I-I’ll get you some water.”

“I’m fine.” Goro waved off his concern before taking a bite of just the cake and icing.

“You don’t have to eat it.” Despite his protest, the former detective continued anyway.

“You made it, didn’t you? It’d be rude not to eat it.”

“But I made it wrong.”

Goro cleared his throat and drank down the glass of water Ren offered him before laughing softly. “So you said this was your first time baking?”

Ren felt his whole face flush, and he hid in his hands, pushing his fingers behind his glasses, before letting out a groan of frustration.

“This isn’t how this night was supposed to go! I was going to have dinner with you, make a delicious cake and confess that I like you and want you to be my boyfriend and now this whole thing is ruined.”

Silence fell in the cafe after he finished complaining. He could hear Goro breathing, it was so quiet. The gravity of what he had just said caught up to him at long last, and his face was hot enough that he could feel his fingers thawing from the cold that leaked in through Leblanc’s poor insulation.

“I…” He didn’t know what words he could say to make up for this, to salvage this moment. “C-can you just forget about that?”

This is why he never talked, dammit. He always ended up putting his foot in his mouth. And here Goro was, staring at him as he peeked through his hands to see the aftermath of his words, and he had never felt so embarrassed in his whole life. 

Goro hadn’t said a word in what felt like several minutes. His lips were slightly parted, eyebrows high over his warm eyes. Ren’s heart was skipping—ramming against his ribcage. He wanted him to say something _ , anything,  _ at this point.

But he didn’t. He stood, and Ren swallowed hard as he desperately scrambled for any words he could say to make sure Goro didn’t leave. But cold fingers wrapped around his wrists and pulled his hands away from his face. He stared, gaping in surprise as Goro leaned over the counter and captured his lips softly with his own. The spice of the ginger was sweeter somehow. 

Before he could even process that Akechi Goro  _ kissed  _ him, the warmth of those gentle lips left him and revealed a victorious smirk that made Ren’s stomach knot up more than the awful cake had.

“Seems we both had the same idea, then…” 

The very words left him breathless. A rush of nervous energy swelled in his chest, and he couldn’t help the grin that plastered itself on his face. 

“Are you serious?” he asked, hardly able to keep the laugh out of his voice.

“Quite, actually. I had a difficult time finishing an essay today because I was a bit preoccupied thinking about…well, this.” The former detective motioned with his hands to the space between him and Ren. “Seems you beat me to the punch though. It won’t happen again.”

“Y-yeah because feeding you awful cake and nervously blurting out I like you is a winning move.” He swallowed hard. 

“I suppose it is. I’m still here and…” A soft chuckle escaped Goro’s lips. He rubbed the back of his neck almost sheepishly before shaking his head and meeting Ren’s gaze once again.

“Go out with me?”

That grin hadn’t left Ren’s face for a moment; the corners of his mouth were starting to ache. 

“Yeah…yeah, let’s do that.”

They both decided Goro should stay the night, and they would go buy a cake to enjoy together instead…even though it seemed his abomination wasn’t  _ that  _ bad, after all. They stayed up late, talking and exchanging both presents and kisses. Ren wasn’t sure that either of their gifts (a monogrammed fountain pen and gray fleece-lined gloves from Ren and a wallet and scarf from Goro) could compare to the thrill that he felt when he leaned on Goro’s should up in the drafty attic and the sensation of Goro’s arm wrapping around his back. It was one of the best Christmases Ren had ever had, and he knew that the feeling was mutual.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> my twitter is @ chromiekins


End file.
